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The Wrybill Newsletter of the Canterbury Region, Ornithological Society of New Zealand

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The Wrybill Newsletter of the Canterbury Region, Ornithological Society of New Zealand The Wrybill Newsletter of the Canterbury Region, Ornithological Society of New Zealand Regional representative: Jan Walker 305 Kennedys Bush Road, Christchurch 8025 Ph 03 322 7187. Email: [email protected] July 2010 What's on at OSNZ Canterbury: June to December 2010 Indoor Meetings Evening meetings take place at 7.30pm on the last Monday of the month at the Mahaanui Area DOC office, 31 Nga Mahi Drive, off Blenheim Road, Sockburn. Plenty of parking is available at the premises and on the road. Monday 26th July: Lorna Depp from Canterbury University will talk about her current PhD work on the Chatham Island Albatross. Monday 30th August: Simon Elkington from DoC will speak about the conservation of the Orange- fronted Parakeet. Monday 27th September: Peter Langlands will explain the work he has been doing for DoC on “The National Bittern Database and the Conservation of Bittern in Canterbury.” Monday 1st November: Dr Frances Schmechel, Ecan ecologist will talk about Ecan bird monitoring projects including braided river and Banks Peninsula 5-Minute Bird Counts. Monday 29th November: Dr Laura Molles will update us on the Tui Translocation Project on Banks Peninsula. Field Meetings Saturday 17th July (back-up 18th July): Ashburton Lakes Waterbird count. Early start to get to Mt Somers where groups are sent out to each lake. Meet promptly at 7.45am at Islington Tavern, first pub after leaving Hornby, Main South Road on right at entrance to Templeton just after Alpine View motor camp/motel. Contact, as soon as possible, Ron Nilsson, [email protected] or Jan, [email protected], so they know numbers and can organise car pooling. Saturday 14th August: North Canterbury birding and picnic. Meet Belfast Tavern just before motorway, 9am. Contact Bev, [email protected] Saturday 11th September: Welcome back to the waders at Southshore Spit, New Brighton, with Forest and Bird, starting at 3pm. Contact Nick, [email protected] Saturday 2nd October: Ashley River Survey. Meet at south side of Ashley River Bridge on Loburn Road 1 The Wrybill - July 2010 out of Rangiora, 9am. Contact Eric Spurr, [email protected] Tel: 03-313-8283 or 027-210-3883, or Bev as above. Weekend 15th-17th October: Peel Forest. Bush and river birds. Contact Ron Nilsson, [email protected], Tel: 338-8936. Saturday 20th November: Ashley River Survey – details as for 2nd October. Saturday 4th December: Summer Wader Count, Lake Ellesmere followed by BBQ at Colin and Cherry Hill's. Contact Colin Hill, [email protected] or Jan. Meet at end Embankment Road, Greenpark at 9am. *Any members interested in a Field Trip to Auckland to visit places such as Miranda Bird Sanctuary, Tiritiri Matangi Island and the sewage works, please contact Nick Allen or Jan Walker, emails above. Droppings from the Regional Rep Miskelly and Murray Williams, both from Wellington. Peter Frost from Whanganui was confirmed as a Councillor after being co-opted You will have found the programme for the previously. There is no-one from Christchurch next six months preceding this dropping. This currently on the Council, though there are a few alteration was made to make the meetings list from Dunedin and Nelson. more accessible and easier for people to print off. You may only need to set the printer for 2 The RRs’ meeting takes place the day before the pages at most. Please let us know if you have Conference begins and was very full with topics any comments on this change. this year. These are the main points: The annual OSNZ AGM and Conference was A National Survey of Caspian Tern colonies is held in Nelson this year and attracted over 130 proposed for 2011-2013. This is presently being members, 21 of them from Canterbury. The considered by the Scientific Committee of the food wasn’t quite up to our expectations, given Council for its methodology and practice aspects. the previous fare at the Shorebird conference, but we are in straightened times and the A possible reduced membership fee for over 65s caterers had changed. The scientific day papers will be examined. Otherwise the Ordinary fee were excellent; I think the use of power-point will go up to $70 per annum. greatly enhances the style of presentation nowadays, but it doesn’t make up for shoddy Regional advocacy of our purpose as a Society data, though this was mostly absent. There should be made through press releases were some good papers about braided river and advertising of our meetings etc. birds which we in Canterbury are much involved with, so this made for fascinating We should circulate a list of good speakers and listening. talks around the branches, to help those who find it hard to get speakers. As usual, rain fell in abundance on the fieldtrip day, but a small group much enjoyed a visit to In order to broaden the appeal of OSNZ we the Nelson Lakes Mainland Island at Lake need to emphasize the particular skills we can Rotoiti, in relatively mild drizzle. The 60 or so offer in terms of accurate bird recognition and who chose the boat up the Abel Tasman Coast effective bird studies that include ‘hands-on’ to Totoranui had to weather large swell, rain experience of birds such as bird banding. and lack of birds, though 2 Reef Herons were More local training for 5-minute bird counts seen. Most of the Monday morning half-day was suggested to increase the involvement of trips were cancelled. OSNZ in productive research. Two new Councillors were elected, Colin Should Canterbury take up the offer of extra 2 The Wrybill - July 2010 Southern Bird copies to be placed in public busy checking out good spots for the bird during libraries, waiting rooms etc? This would be in the autumn, with some success, apparently. order to stimulate more local interest in birds. Some superb photos of birds in Iceland accompanied Kath Varcoe and Liz Burtt’s talk in Inter-regional projects, camps and weekends April and in May Paul Scofield gave us his should be encouraged. intriguing and problematical expose of the birds of Miocene NZ through the results of the St A redesign of nest record cards and of moult Bathan’s excavation. cards is being considered. The Farewell to the Godwits event was well The 2011 Conference will be in Upper Hutt, populated. Members with scopes showed Wellington Region. There will probably be 2 hundreds of people how to recognize wading scientific days of papers. As Wellington has birds. Many membership forms were more scientists per sq.metre than any other city, distributed, so people at least know we exist. they will have no problem filling the slots. We also attended the ‘Soggy Feet at Boggy Some of the indoor days may be offering Creek’ event for World Wetland Day at the end workshops with hands-on moult training, of January and again showed people waterbirds banding training, etc. at Lake Ellesmere. If you hear of an event that has a bird or ecology connection that we could Proceedings of the AGM will be published in the take our publicity posters to, please let us know. September issue of Southern Bird. In late June I spent the day at Diamond Harbour But an important part of that meeting was the with groups from around Lyttelton Harbour at a awarding of a Meritorious Service Award to one workshop talking about Indigenous Biodiversity. of our longest serving Canterbury birders, Sheila, Ann and I continue to do 5-minute bird Kathleen Harrison. A profile of Kathleen’s counts at several places along the Port Hills and birding exploits will appear in the next Wrybill. a few on Banks Peninsula to add data to the valuable set being built up. If you are keen to get involved with this, we can provide training and there will be a lot of bush areas that would benefit from your counts. Jan Walker Recent Sightings Late January: Jan Walker and Sheila Petch Photo: Ann Sherlock found Greenpark Sands “wall to wall with small Kathleen receives her Award from Jan waders” including 17 Pacific Golden Plovers, 6 Our meetings over the last few months have Turnstones, 3 Red Knots, 25 Bar-tailed Godwits, been memorable and well-attended, culminating 3 Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, ~20 Red-necked in June’s talk on Black Robins. Twenty-nine Stints, hundreds of Wrybills and thousands of people were treated to a wonderful summary of Pied Stilts. Andrew Crossland commented on Euan Kennedy’s research into the extinction the northward migration of Wrybill, Banded vulnerability of the species, related to its Dotterel, SIPO and Caspian Terns. Wrybill and genetics. Dave Bell came to the Members Night Bandies fly parallel to the Port Hills from Lake in February and gave a great presentation on the Ellesmere up the Avon-Heathcote Estuary and Falcon and the sightings database that he then northwards along Pegasus Bay. Ben manages. Our members had interesting slots on Rodriguez reported a Skua at Cooper's Lagoon. Kakapo-minding, Wrybills, and birds in the UK. While involved in World Wetland Day at Lake Ellesmere Jan saw 5 Cattle Egrets, 2 in breeding Ron Nilsson talked on ‘The South Island Kokako plumage, at Boggy Creek. Jan wondered if Story’ after the AGM in March and has been Cattle Egrets could be summering over and even 3 The Wrybill - July 2010 breeding here. April: Jan and Sheila saw a Bittern at Embankment road. Steve and Colin's survey of February: Andrew and Phill Crutchley found a Lake Ellesmere revealed 272 Wrybills, 22 Red- possible Mongolian Plover among ~500 necked Stints, 4 Curlew Sandpipers, 25 Pacific Banded Dotterels at Kaitorete Spit.
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